Praying for Others
Week 31, Weekend
Liliana Lewis
With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may count you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may fulfill every good purpose of yours and every act promoted by your faith.
2 Thessalonians 1:11
Praying for others as we pray for ourselves reflects the heart of God who has asked us to love others as ourselves. How beautiful to begin loving others by lifting them up in prayer! Jesus asked His disciples to pray in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night of His arrest. In His humanity, Jesus knew He needed to be strengthened by His heavenly Father, so Jesus agonized in prayer, and He asked His disciples repeatedly to pray.
In 2 Thessalonians 3:1 Paul wrote, “Brothers, pray for us.” If Jesus asked for prayer from His best friends and Paul needed the prayers of the church, how much more do we need the prayers of our loved ones? Furthermore, how much more are we called to be the ones who intercede on behalf of our family, friends, His church, our nation, and the world!
When I was in Bible college, I learned one practical way of praying with focus. First, develop a prayer notebook and divide it into daily sections. Then pray specifically for major items on each day of the week.
Daily: Pray Scripture for your family and personal prayer requests.
Sunday: Pray for North America, the church, pastors, and missionaries in North America, lost people, and so on.
Monday: Pray for Central and South America, parachurch ministries, evangelists, and so on.
Tuesday: Pray for the South Pacific Islands and Australia. Pray against evil forces.
Wednesday: Pray for Europe and Asia, as well as secular world influences such as media, schools, and so on.
Thursday: Pray for the Middle East and north Africa. Pray for authorities in our nation such as the president and cabinet, law enforcement, military, and so on.
Friday: Pray for sub-Saharan Africa, needy people, the brokenhearted, those in the hospital, doctors, shut-ins, and so on.
Saturday: Pray for Asia, particular world groups such as persecuted Christians, Jews, unreached people groups, famine areas, poor people, and so on.
This is just a basic example to help you develop your own plan to pray specifically for the world, the nations, the lost, missionaries, other Christian organizations, and various issues. Let’s be the ones who answer the call, “Brothers, pray for us.” Let’s be women who pray daily.
Abba Father, Paul was praying eternal prayers for his beloved friends. I come to You longing to be a woman of prayer. Please touch me and make me one who constantly prays for others. In Jesus’ name I pray, amen.
I just finished the book “Let Prayer Change your Life” that a friend gave me. It was awesome! Once I finished the book the same person gave me a prayer partner notebook that is divided up into several sections like praise, admit, request, thanks, listening, and other sections. It has helped me to stay focused while praying. It has really increased my prayer life.
I like the template you supplied for daily prayers. I like that you have a day to pray for the spiritual family around the world.I think that sometimes we think that everyone is free to worship Christ as we are in the US.After doing a crusade in Haiti I realize it is not true. They need prayer for the lives and their countries just like I prayer for my immediate family and country.